INSIDE THE ISSUE

> New Report Not as Rosy as Older Report
> MHA to EOHHS: Act Boldly in Waiver
> Interim President & CEO Sroczynski
> Peters Appointed MHA EVP
> Protecting Telehealth
> ACHE Summit October 16
> A Message from Steve Walsh

MONDAY REPORT

State’s Latest Report on Hospital Finances Not So Rosy

Six days after releasing hospital health system financial data for all of Fiscal Year 2025 that showed a miniscule 0.2% operating margin, the Center for Health Information and Analysis released the data for the first nine months of Fiscal Year 2026 that painted a darker picture: the median hospital health system operating margin was negative -1.5% for the period running from October 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026.

MHA and other healthcare experts viewed FY25’s positive bump as an anomaly. The statewide median health system operating margins for 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 were negative. FY25’s margins, which CHIA released on September 24, showed the 0.2% positive operating margin for hospital health systems that MHA attributed in large part to the state’s influx of cash to shore up safety net hospitals and the Health Safety Net.

The new CHIA data, released on September 30, brings the healthcare community back to current financial reality. It shows that 14 out of 21 hospital health systems reported negative operating margins throughout the past nine months.

“It is worrying that two-thirds of Massachusetts health systems were operating at a loss through June, especially knowing the biggest test for our hospitals is still to come,” MHA stated in reaction to the latest quarterly report. “Sweeping policy changes on the horizon will expose hospitals to more than $1 billion in losses, placing immense pressure on their operations while threatening the commonwealth‘s healthcare safety net. In what has become an increasingly fraught environment for hospitals to carry forth their mission, they will be counting on bold, collaborative policy action to help maintain care services and fuel the local economy.”

EOHHS Sought Waiver Feedback: MHA Shared Hospital Priorities

Last Thursday, October 1, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) held a virtual hearing to gather feedback on its proposal for a new Medicaid waiver.

The Section 1115 waiver is the main agreement between states and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), allowing states to test and be paid for innovative programs in their Medicaid programs for the next five years. The federal government essentially “waives” standard Medicaid rules to allow the programs to go forward. EOHHS posted its first draft of the Massachusetts proposal in September and a final version will be sent to CMS in November, after which the state and federal government will negotiate its details throughout 2027 before the waiver is implemented in 2028.

“For Massachusetts hospitals, this waiver represents a rare and essential lifeline,” MHA’s Senior V.P. Dan McHale told EOHHS at the virtual hearing last Thursday. “It is one of the few remaining chances we have to mitigate a historic confluence of financial pressures – and the threats they pose to hospitals, patient access, and overall healthcare costs. As we look forward to new 1115 waiver period that begins in 2028, MHA estimates that more than $1 billion is at risk for hospitals as a result of Medicaid changes. This includes historic increases in uncompensated care and demand in the Health Safety Net program due to hundreds of thousands of newly uninsured individuals as well as massive reductions in Medicaid State Directed Payments.”

MHA encouraged the state to act “boldly” to ensure the waiver going forward has the following three conditions:

• Expanded federal financing authority to support the commonwealth’s Safety Net Care Pool, which helps fund safety net provider payments and the Health Safety Net;
• A revised hospital incentive program proposal that allows hospitals to try new programs while prioritizing essential services and hospital resilience through adequate funding; and
• Abandonment of the state’s 340B proposal in the waiver that MHA and its members say carries too much risk for hospitals and health systems.

Interim President & CEO Sroczynski Takes Helm of MHA

Mike Sroczynski began his tenure as Interim President & CEO of MHA last week as MHA’s previous leader, Steve Walsh, officially began his duties as President & CEO of the American Hospital Association.(See Walsh’s outgoing message below.)

Sroczynski has been serving as President of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island (HARI) since September 2025, and before that was MHA’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel. During more than two decades at MHA he has played an integral role in shaping the healthcare system’s success through Massachusetts’ nation-leading adoption of universal health coverage, its response to COVID-19 and numerous other public health crises, as well as landmark policies centered around care coordination, payment structure, and workforce development.

Sroczynski’s deep roots in New England healthcare have expanded MHA’s representation, broadened its network of advocacy and strategic partners, and strengthened its reputation as a trusted policy partner on behalf of patients and caregivers.

Over the years, but especially over the past decade, many of the strategies, advocacy, outreach, and communications that MHA undertook were often proceeded by a “run it by Mike” review that allowed Sroczynski to shape or review the policy before it left the building. His ability to see the big picture implications of each individual action MHA undertook helped provide a unified stance for MHA and the healthcare community.

“I am honored to have been chosen by the MHA Board of Trustees to help align our healthcare system’s time-tested mission,” Sroczynski said. “Over the past decade, I have had the pleasure of working alongside Steve Walsh as he reshaped and strengthened MHA and, as a consequence, the entire Massachusetts healthcare system. Relying on the trusted relationships with policymakers and healthcare leaders that I have developed over the decades, I look forward to continuing that essential work for patients and caregivers during a time in which we face tremendous challenges but also opportunities to excel.” He added that MHA’s immediate focus in the coming months will be to work with the state and stakeholders to craft the strongest possible supports to help counter the impending federal cuts that hospitals and health systems will face in 2027 and beyond.

Sroczynski serves on the boards of the Professional Liability Foundation and the Massachusetts Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation. He is also a member of the New England Council’s healthcare committee and is a past chair of the American Hospital Association’s state association government relations officer group. He is a graduate of the Syracuse University College of Law and the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.

Lauren Peters Appointed Executive V.P. at MHA

Lauren Peters, the well-known and respected Massachusetts healthcare leader, has been appointed Executive Vice President of MHA, overseeing the association’s policy and advocacy efforts, data and analytics, and clinical and innovation initiatives.

Peters has been at the center of health policy in the commonwealth for more than a decade, having recently launched the Massachusetts Payer-Provider Partnership (MP3) that brings hospital and health plan members together to find common ground. Peters will continue to build out and lead MP3 as she takes on the EVP role at MHA. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA).

Prior to CHIA, Peters served as Undersecretary at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS), where she oversaw programs and policy initiatives across multiple agencies, including the Department of Public Health and MassHealth. During her time at EOHHS, she played a central role in the commonwealth’s COVID-19 response, led initiatives addressing homelessness and substance use disorders, and advanced long-term care, primary care, and behavioral health reform efforts.

Earlier in her career, Peters served as Associate General Counsel and Director of Healthcare Finance and Policy at the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance, and worked at the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. She earned her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School and holds a bachelor’s degree from William Smith College.

MHA Urges CMS to Protect Telehealth Through Physician Fee Schedule

MHA is urging CMS to advance telehealth and digital-health policies in its proposed 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule while withdrawing proposed restrictions on remote patient monitoring (RPM) and remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM).

In comments submitted to CMS, MHA supports several proposals that would broaden beneficiary access to virtual care, including adding five services to Medicare’s telehealth list, maintaining teaching-physician flexibility, and clarifying critical-care telehealth consultation policies. MHA emphasizes that telehealth is now an integrated care modality across primary care, specialty care, behavioral health, rehabilitation, chronic disease management, and post-discharge follow-up. Payment policy, the association argues, should reflect clinical appropriateness and professional responsibility rather than assume virtual care requires fewer resources or delivers less value than in-person care.

MHA’s principal concern is CMS’s proposed RPM and RTM changes. The association, like many across the country, opposes requiring monitoring staff to be directly employed by the billing practitioner or practice, arguing that this would disrupt integrated care programs that depend on affiliated entities, centralized health-system teams, and qualified clinical partners.

Remote monitoring programs require far more than a connected device, MHA argues. They involve patient enrollment and education, technology setup, secure data transmission, electronic health record integration, clinical review, alert escalation, patient outreach, documentation, and compliance support. MHA notes that smaller practices, rural providers, safety-net organizations, and specialty practices may lack the resources to build every function internally.

The Massachusetts Telemedicine Coalition (tMED), of which MHA is a convening member, wrote a similar letter to CMS.

ACHE of Massachusetts’ Annual Healthcare Summit

The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) – Massachusetts holds its annual healthcare summit on Friday, October 16 at Gillette Stadium.

Entitled No Final Buzzer: Leading in Healthcare When the Game Never Stops, the program features a morning keynote from former NBA player Chris Herren, the founder of the Herren Project and Herren Wellness. In addition to panel discussions, award presentations, and networking, there will be an address by John McDonough of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, whose new book, America’s Wrong Turn, focuses on how 40 years of “neoliberal policy choices” adversely affected the American healthcare system.

Special pricing and in-person credits are available. See the full details and registration information here.

A Message from Steve Walsh

Friends and colleagues,

As I transition to my next chapter at the American Hospital Association, I want to convey the same gratitude and sentiments I recently shared with MHA’s Board.

It has been a truly lifechanging opportunity to represent the MHA mission over nearly a decade. My love for healthcare has always been rooted in family and public service, but it has grown by magnitudes because of my admiration for this network of leaders, caregivers, policymakers, and advocates.

I was lucky to have a front-row seat as our provider organizations and their leaders put competition aside to save hospitals and lives, embrace a nation-leading approach to workforce support and closing care gaps, and push us to think bigger every step of the way. We are a more innovative and interconnected commonwealth because of their fundamental belief that success is a team sport – and that progress for patients isn’t supposed to be easy. As I’ve come to learn, that is the common thread between every Massachusetts miracle this sector has made possible.

That’s exactly what this association will continue to deliver through the leadership of its board, Mike Sroczynski, and the MHA team. Mike and his staff have the expertise to meet this critical moment on behalf of the commonwealth’s healthcare community. They understand that addressing the pressures of today depends on reimagining the care of tomorrow.

I will forever be proud of what we accomplished together during my time at MHA and the infrastructure we have built for our system’s continued success. Our partnership with policymakers and stakeholders across the sector is stronger than ever before thanks to the unwavering commitment of our elected leaders – from the House to the Senate to the Baker and Healey administrations. Their support for patients and the healthcare community has been extraordinary.

And I certainly owe a special word of thanks and appreciation to my dear friend Speaker Ron Mariano, who has been central to our commonwealth’s healthcare progress for the better part of two decades.

Together we have broken the mold of a traditional association to embrace new collaborations and operate more creatively. And, hopefully, on our best days we have helped instill joy into your work.

Your commitment to patients, workers, and communities has always been an inspiration and I look forward to expanding our partnership in new ways. Thank you for the trust you have placed in me.

With gratitude,

Steve

John LoDico, Editor